 The Gay Agenda™< >Homiesexual uwu
Okay so I'm recommending my two favorite books that I read last year, but please know that they are both very tough reads for different reasons, which I'll highlight in my descriptions of them.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (contemporary, literary fiction, Adult)
I am making this warning larger than the title so it is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that it is important. A Little Life is not a fun book, it's extremely depressing and hard to get through. If you are easily emotionally distressed (especially if you get very emotionally attached to characters), or if you are triggered by domestic abuse, self harm, sexual violence, pedophilia and/or suicidal thoughts/actions, you may want to skip out on this one.
That being said, this was probably the best book I read all year and will be one of my favorites for a long time. The story follows a group of four men from college to middle age that live in New York. The story holds a particular focus on Jude, a troubled man with a terrible past. It's beautifully written (though definitely a bit pretentious), and the characters are so well developed that they feel like real people. If anyone reads this book and doesn't cry by the end they're a sociopath or medically can't cry. It is also a chonker of a book at somewhere around 710-730 pages if I remember correctly (at least my copy was). If you're in the mood for some extremely sad life story realness, then this one's the book for you.
The Troop by Nick Cutter (horror, Adult)
This is a gory mess of a book and I loved every second of it.
Horror is one of my favorite genres, and this is one of the best horror books I've read, period. The story is about a troop of five boy scouts and their scoutmaster that take a trip to a deserted island in the Canadian wilderness. While there, a man with a bio-medically engineered, uh.... contagion seems like the right word—and an insatiable hunger decides to come to their campground. And the rest is blood-soaked chaos.
The Troop is a masterpiece of body horror literature. And, yes, that does mean blood, guts and generally gross imagery. It's told in a mixture of news articles that clue you in about the situation and prose from the perspective of the campers. Speaking of the campers, they're all 14, so if you're uncomfortable reading about horrible things happening to 14-year-old boys, or just generally don't want a side of nausea with your reading experience, this might not be for you. For any horror fans, though, this one is a must read.
Last edited by NiallNIP; 01-10-2021 at 05:53 PM.
|